


the one where elnor was shown the admonition

by Boldlynyooming (arka_r)



Series: Picard Short Fics [7]
Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Angst with a Happy Ending, Captivity, Ficlet, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Breakdown, Psychological Torture, Torture, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-23 02:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23170657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/Boldlynyooming
Summary: Elnor was captured by the Tal Shiar and was shown the Admonition.Based on my own fic "the one where elnor got captured", because some people have been asking for follow-up. I thought it's better if I reupload it as a new fic instead of adding to the old one :D
Series: Picard Short Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650364
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	the one where elnor was shown the admonition

Fear was not something that Elnor experienced often. However, sitting in a Tal Shiar prison, surrounded by Tal Shiar operatives, Elnor became aware of his own fear. It settled in his stomach like a heavyweight, and it gnawed at him from the inside.

The Tal Shiar, Zani had told him, only took prisoners when they thought they would get something out of them. Out of  _ him _ . And they would do everything in their power to get it — and then, they  _ would _ get it. It was just a matter of time. That was why he  _ should not _ , under any circumstance, be captured by the Tal Shiar.

Elnor wouldn’t lie that he was afraid of what the future might hold for him now. He was afraid of death, but he was also afraid of living in Tal Shiar captivity. He was afraid about what the Tal Shiar might want from him, what they might want him to do for them.

The sound of footsteps pulled Elnor out of his internal thoughts, and he saw a man approaching his cell where he was being held in. He didn’t look like a Tal Shiar operative. He was dressed in all black instead of Tal Shiar uniform.

But that did not make him an ally.

“If you want to ask me to betray my master, you are wasting your time”, Elnor warned the man. 

“As a citizen of the Star Empire, you have duty and responsibility to our race, our people”, the man said. “The… ‘thing’ this so-called master of yours took is a harbinger of our destruction. We should destroy it before it destroys us.”

Elnor remembered what Picard had told him — the ‘thing’ the man was referring to was an android, true, a synthetic life made by Human hands. But it— no,  _ she _ — was dear to Picard. She was the daughter of his friend.

She was Picard’s mission.

Whereas  _ his  _ mission was to protect Picard.

“My creed for him takes priority above everything else”, Elnor told the man.

“You will betray your own people for one human?” the man said.

“He’s my master, and I bound my sword to him”, Elnor returned. “Everything else doesn’t matter.”

“Hm”, the man hummed. “You are afraid of me.”

The change of topic was surprising. Elnor bit the inside of his cheek, before answering. 

“I am.”

“Interesting”, the man mused. “You have not tell a single lie, yet you somehow managed to avoid giving me what I want. Qowat Milat is truly something else.”

“I don’t need your flattery”, Elnor said bluntly.

The man chuckled.

“I’ll come back later”, he said. “Oh, and by the way — my name is Narek. Just to give a name to your fear.”

With a wink, the man — Narek — walked away from his cell. Once he could no longer see him, Elnor felt his shoulder sag.

He leaned back to the wall and shivered as fear overtook him.

—

The next time someone visited his cell, it was two Tal Shiar centurions. They were taller than Elnor and bulkier. One of them pressed a hypospray to Elnor’s neck, and the effect was instantaneous. He couldn’t move his limbs at all, so they dragged him out of the cell and into a strange room.

The centurions strapped him to a table and Elnor’s fear grew as his eyes caught various contraptions hanging over his head. He didn’t know what they were or what they were going to do to him, but he knew it couldn’t be good. He turned his attention from them and to Narek, who was standing by the wall.

Elnor found that he could move his fingers already. But when he tested the cuff that bound him to the table, he found that they refused to budge. Once again, he eyed the contraptions warily.

“Ignore them. I won’t be using them on you”, Narek told Elnor. “Not right now, at least. Unlike my sister, I don’t relish on inflicting physical pain.”

“That’s… somewhat comforting”, Elnor returned. “But I still won’t tell you anything.”

Narek circled around the table, his hands toying with a  _ tan-zhekran _ . The clicks coming from it somehow sounded sinister and Elnor could feel his heart beating rapidly in his stomach.

“Why don’t we start with something small?” Narek asked. “Why don’t you tell me your name?”

“I’m not telling you anything”, Elnor returned. 

“You know that the Tal Shiar keeps every record of refugees living in colony worlds, right? We have information about your name, your age, your upbringing”, Narek prattled on, before stopping to lean over the table, his eyes boring right into Elnor’s soul. “Or you can save us both the trouble and tell me your name.”

“It’s—” Elnor paused, hesitating, before answering. “It’s Elnor.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Narek threw him a smile that was somewhat comforting, before going to circle around the table once again. His footsteps echoed dully in the empty room. “Now, tell me, Elnor. Where did your master take the synth?”

“I’m not telling you anything”, Elnor repeated.

“You’re not thinking about this clearly”, Narek said. “We already know where the synth came from. We can send ships there and destroy every last bit of it… or you can tell me where did your master take the synth, thereby postponing the attack to the synth’s home planet.”

“I’m not putting my master in danger”, Elnor told Narek.

“We’re not going to attack your master”, Narek returned, stopping again and staring at him calmly. “I can give an order to not hurt your master. All we want is the synth.”

“I’m not telling you anything”, Elnor said for the third time.

“Hm”, Narek hummed. “Pity. I didn’t want to resort to crude tactic, but your stubbornness have given me no choice.”

Narek took a half-spherical device from the table to his left and put it on the top of Elnor’s head. The device clicked into place, and Elnor, not knowing what would happen to him now, could feel fear spiking inside his chest.

“Yes, feel that fear”, Narek said almost too gently, before snapping his finger.

And just like that, images — horrible and terrible they were — flashed in his eyes as if they were seared right into his brain. The destruction of ancient civilizations, total annihilation and mass extinction of several species across the galaxy, all of it was caused by something that had never existed before. The Destroyer, the Seb-Cheneb. A synthetic life gone rogue. The images went over and over and over and over again, until Elnor couldn’t tell where they began and where they ended.

Elnor screamed, raw and desperate for it all to stop.

—

The Tal Shiar centurions dumped Elnor back into his cell. Immediately, he crawled to the recycle chute and threw up. He curled into himself by the wall and rocked himself back and forth. Broken, choked sobs escaped him unbidden. 

He tried to close his eyes, to prevent the images from replaying in his head once again, but it was in vain. The images were still there, horrible and terrible and felt so very much real it was unreal, and he was helpless to stop it.

It was as if he was going to lose his mind. He couldn’t remember how the sky on Vashti looked, but he knew how red the sky looked as the synthetic lives began to rain destruction upon an unknown planet. He couldn’t remember how Zani’s fingers felt as she combed through his hair, but he knew how it felt as a synthetic choked an alien being to death with its bare hands.

“Tell me, where did your master take the synth?” Narek’s voice came from outside the cell and Elnor immediately clung to it — anything to provide him a reprive from the horrible memory, even if it belonged to his enemy.

“I am not— I won’t tell you anything”, Elnor, still shaking, replied.

“When the Seb-Cheneb arrives, it will not only destroy us, the Romulans, but also every species on this galaxy”, Narek said. “Think about it like this. The Seb-Cheneb will also destroy your master, unless we stop it.”

“The vision— Are they— are they real?” Elnor asked, swallowing thickly. It was hard to imagine such atrocity actually happened.

“Very much so”, Narek answered, much to Elnor’s horror.

“You’re lying”, Elnor said, his voice hardening. “I don’t trust you. That’s— this is all is an elaborate lie!”

“Pretending that horrible things did not happen because you refuse to believe it won’t make those horrible things untrue”, Narek pointed out.

Elnor already had enough of it all. He covered his ears with his hands and shut his eyes, but the horrible images were still flashing in his mind’s eyes.

“Please, please make it stop!” he pleaded.

“Tell me where did your master take the synth”, Narek demanded.

“I don’t— I can’t—” Elnor sobbed. He wanted to go home, he wanted to be back on Vashti, to the house of the Qowat Milat. He wanted to pretend that this was all just a horrible dream. “ _ Please… _ ”

“Yes, you do. You  _ can _ ”, Narek urged. “Help us preserve the galaxy and end the synth’s life. Help us help your master.”

“Stop, please, stop”, Elnor cried, rocking back and forth.

“The location, Elnor”, Narek still kept going on. “I need the location of the synth.”

“Nepenthe!” Elnor cried out, finally opening his eyes and looked at Narek in the eye. “It’s Nepenthe. They were going to Nepenthe. Please, please,  _ please… _ ”

“Nepenthe… Alright”, Narek said as he strode closer to Elnor’s cell and pressed his hand to the barrier. Elnor stared at the gesture, stunned. “It’s alright now, Elnor. It’s going to be alright. We will take care of the synth. Everything will be alright.”

Elnor felt bitterness spreading in his mouth. What had he done? He just betrayed his master. He just betrayed Picard, his creed, and everything he was upholding. He was putting Picard’s life and mission in danger.

Narek stood and walked away from Elnor’s cell, but then suddenly he was flung backwards. Elnor stared at Narek’s unconscious body, confused, when Picard and the synth came into view. The synth moved to the panel outside Elnor’s cell and deactivated the barrier, but Elnor still couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Elnor, I am sorry for leaving you—”

Elnor could no longer hold himself back. He flung himself towards Picard and held him so tightly it hurt.

“It’s alright now, my boy”, Picard reassured him and held Elnor back.

Elnor pressed his face to the crook of Picard’s neck and broke down sobbing.

—

“I don’t even need to run tests to know that he’s currently having a nervous breakdown”, the Emergency Medical Hologram said to Picard, once they were all safely aboard  _ La Sirena _ . The EMH then turned toward Elnor. “Elevated blood pressure, tense muscles, trembling, shaking, difficulty breathing. Do you also perhaps experience flashbacks or have suicidal ideations?”

“Just— just flashbacks”, Elnor answered. He was currently sitting in one of the biobeds, dressed in hospital gown and his hair down.

“Do you want to tell us about them?” the EMH asked.

Elnor shut his eyes and as if recalled, the horrible images began to replay once again, over and over and over and—

“Elnor?” Picard’s voice gently pierced through the flashbacks. Elnor opened his eyes.

“Narek, the Tal Shiar who interrogated me, he—” Elnor paused, swallowing. “He showed me images of, of the destruction of old civilization. It— it was caused by…” His eyes flicked cautiously toward the synth who was with Picard. “By synthetic lives.”

Picard turned slightly toward the synth, before turning his attention back to Elnor. “Are these… these images, these visions— Are they real?”

“Narek said it’s real”, Elnor answered. “And— and it feels very real to me. I can— I can feel them. The heat from the fire and the destruction, the death of every being.”

“Elnor—” Picard began, but Elnor was not done yet.

“I don’t know what’s happening anymore. I’m— I’m scared”, he admitted, and it was scary to lay it bare for everyone to see. He was suppose to be strong, to be the blade that protected his master. But now he could feel himself crumbling.

“Elnor”, Picard called, his voice was firm, yet warm. “It’s all right. You’re here, you’re safe now. It’s all that matters.”

“I betrayed you by telling him where you went. I broke my oath to you”, Elnor told Picard.

“What you did was enduring such horrible torture”, Picard returned. “And there is no shame in breaking, Elnor. You hear me? Greater people would break too.”

Elnor mulled over Picard’s words. If it was true… if Picard said it so, perhaps it would be alright. He would be alright.

… Right?

“What’s going to happen to me now?” Elnor asked.

“Now, you’re going to focus on your recovery”, Picard answered. “And remember, I will always be here for you. I’m not going anywhere. Not anymore.”

Elnor nodded.

“Well, your blood pressure has gone down significantly”, the EMH said suddenly, and Elnor had forgotten that he was there. “But I’m still going to give you some antianxiety medications, just in case. How are you feeling?”

“Tired”, Elnor answered, wincing slightly when the EMH pressed a hypospray to his neck.

“Go get some rest”, Picard said. “I’ll be around, if you need me.”

Elnor nodded again and closed his eyes.

The images didn’t plague him that night, and Elnor hoped that they would never return.

Forever. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm accepting prompts on [my tumblr](https://boldlynyooming.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
